I can’t say too much about the show other than what I have already, but I plan on doing some things next week as it gets closer to air… like a giveaway contest (you’ll love that, and you’ll want to win, trust me) and a live tweeting of the show. There may be other things too, but I’m still working on it.

I will be watching. I wish your serious lots of success and believe this one could be a winner.

I’m at a physics conference and during one of the breaks a bunch of cosmologists were having a good laugh at some of Stephen Hawking’s latest warnings of mankind’s imminent danger. (Do get me wrong, we all deeply respect Hawking.) My point is I just hope the discovery channel doesn’t sensationalize the “how the world might end” material you are covering too much. You don’t want your show to be yet another Discovery Channel series real scientists roll their eyes at.

Unfortunately it doesn’t seem that the Discovery Channel in Canada is going to be carrying the show at all. There’s no mention of it in the listings for August 29th (we get 9 hours of repeating the same three episodes of Mythbusters), nor do I see it on their website at all.

I really hope that it is available online in the event that it’s not carried up here in our frozen northern wasteland.

I love your blog and am so excited about this show! Hopefully it will be on hulu or another internet source for those of us who are cable-less. Congrats! I am sure it will be picked up if it is as good as the preview!

Other than Phil and Mythbusters, I couldn’t help noticing that every other show in the listings is complete cr*p. Pretty sad, really. TLC (now officially just “TLC”, once “The Learning Channel”) is even worse. The History Channel, owned by a different company than Discovery and TLC, is only a little better.

And with PBS seemingly devoting most of its time to repeat Yanni concerts, it’s pretty hard to know where to turn.

Shows on Discovery Canada are typically a few months behind. And then show up without fanfare so I miss them :-(.
There are enough of us following this blog (shhhhh, or we’ll blow our quiet, friendly world domination plans), someone will have to notice eventually when it shows up.

Wonderful coincidence – it’s the 5th anniversay of Hurricane Katrina. Five years ago I was packing what was shortly to become all my worldly possessions in two cars getting ready to evacuate from New Orleans. One question, though – I evacuated to Houston for Katrina. Where to you go for an asteroid strike? Mars is starting to sound pretty good.

… Wait… Phil’s going to *test* the killer asteroid theory? Should I be hitting the button that lowers Villa Del Desperation into the subterranean bunker? ..

I’d love to see the “killer asteroid” theory tested – but on some other planet – Mars or Mercury please!

Seriously if we could conduct an experiemnt of deflecting amajor asteroid or comet onto Mars or Venus or Mercury , that’s be awesome and well worth doing. (The Moon is little tooclose for comfort though.)

@22. kuhnigget Says:

Oh, and one more nit, Dr. BA (sir), in your narration you probably want to end with, “It just might save your life,” instead of “It just may save your life.” Permission vs. possibility.

Really? I thought the two words were pretty much interchangeable & could both be used in either the permission or possibility sense.

I just wish it was being shown on free-to-air TV (the only sort I can afford) in Australia and not pay-TV in the US only.

@41. TechyDad Says:

First, I read alezmendi say that Phil was sharing “a network with anti-sciencers like Sarah Palin.” Then, I read Quiet Desperation’s : “Wait… Phil’s going to *test* the killer asteroid theory? Should I be hitting the button that lowers Villa Del Desperation into the subterranean bunker?” Then my brain combined the two and imagined Phil targetting Sarah Palin with asteroids. Not that he’d do that, mind you. At least, not with a really big one…

It seems there are enough Canadians that have checked the schedule and noted the show does not appear to have been picked up by Discovery Canada that we could do something about it. With disc.ca having a less complete lineup, and the usual internet blockage of US TV programs it is either a write in campaign or a stable proxy.

Anyway, good luck Phil. I think Discover has a deal with Australia’s SBS. With any luck they’ll get it soon.

I sure hope so! That’d be awesome!

SBS often carries some good science docos and programs and they broadcast Mythbusters there too. Plus they have few ads & ad breaks. Their news service is good too. [Leaving computer and going to turn TV on for SBS World News right now.]

Anyway, substituting “Hollywood Science” with “Bad Science” may or may not be useful.

There is very little risk that species or individuals goes extinct from asteroids, most species and individuals have died from other causes. But even without actual ROI it is risk cutting, and it isn’t often we can do that in the business of living.

So, yes, it isn’t clear cut but we can do that. Maybe we should, even, if not else because we will learn stuff in the process. And _that_ is almost always exchangeable to ROI in the end.

Other than Phil and Mythbusters, I couldn’t help noticing that every other show in the listings is complete cr*p.

Quiet Desperation responded to me:
“Sorry, Phil, you know I’m your fanboy, but 10 PM on a Monday?
It’s 2010, you know. They have these magical devices that can time shift shows.”
My DVD recorder is slaved to my cable box and the cable provider can’t tell me how to fix that.

It seems we don’t get everything here Phil does, for instance last time I checked, Death from the Skies was not available in the UK. It has to be imported with all the accompanying freight charges and import duties slapped on and it takes months to be shipped across.

Add me to the list of folks annoyed with Discovery Canada. If it isn’t going to carry largely the same schedule as the real Discovery channel, it shouldn’t even be using the name. (Not to mention the HD version of the channel doesn’t even match the SD channel, so you can’t watch some shows in HD).

I happened to walk into my living room when Discovery Channel was showing an unrelated documentary that included Phil in its lineup of experts. I thought for a second that Bad Universe was actually being shown in Canada within only a week of it airing in the US. And then Michio Kaku appeared and I felt robbed. I have to echo the sentiments of my fellow Cannucks regarding Discovery Canada’s delays in obtaining shows from the US. Is it really that much of a hassle to get this across the border?